Forsaken Child-Sequel to Mystery Girl
by NobodyInParticular01
Summary: Alice is now a fully-fledged companion, but when a mysterious girl dies in front of her, telling her that the drums are coming and that she needs to run, she is determined to find her and discover who she really is. The journey takes her to Ireland, to the strange girl, and to an old, old, enemy of the Doctor who will stop at nothing to get his revenge... SEQUEL TO MYSTERY GIRL
1. Prologue

**Episode One  
Prologue**

_The blue police box materialised on a normal London street at 11:00 on Christmas Eve 2013. I was watching as they stepped out. The Doctor, Clara and Alice. Alice. My first ever real friend. The one who had saved me. They wouldn't know me. But I'd know them. _

_My name is Never Glenfell. I was named because I was never meant to be, and because I was never wanted. But I can be anyway. And I will never stop being. _

_At first I thought that was all I could do. Just be. Watch and take whatever life did to me. But then Alice found me, and I became more than I ever was. And then it was all taken away from me. My life, used for someone else's ends. I watched the only people who had ever cared about me suffer. It drove me mad for a while._

_But then I came out of the dark, and realised that I could stop that from ever happening, or at least try. So there I was. Standing on the top of the tallest building I could find on a cold winter morning, trying to save my friends._

_They wouldn't know me. It was before we had ever met. Interfering in time like that, I didn't know what could happen. But it was worth a shot._

_As they moved further along the street, I knew it was my time. They'd think I was dead, but I'd see them again. When we all knew who the others were. I stood at the edge of the high-rise building, the wind whipping my hair around my face._

_And then I stretched out my arms and fell. Through the air, towards the ground at a terrifying rate, and then I felt the impact. Bone-crunching, jarring, painful. I could feel myself dying, but I had to hold on. I had to warn them._

_Sure enough, they came over. All three of them. The Doctor tried to save me. Alice knew I was gone. She always knew when to hold on to and when to give up hope. I reached out and grabbed her arm, holding on as if her life depended on it. In a way, it did. _

"_Alice," I managed to whisper through the pain, "You have to run. Just run and keep on running. Then it won't happen. Please. Just run. They're coming. The drums are coming again. They thought they were gone, but they're coming for you. For me they've already come, and they're still in my head,"_

_Unconsciously, I tapped out the rhythm on the pavement. The rhythm that had brought him back, and would always bring him back. The pain was spiking and my vision blurring, but I had to focus on Alice's face. Everyone was staring. _

"_Please," I begged, "Just run. As fast as you have run in your life. And then it won't happen. And it won't be my fault,"_

_Alice stared at me with those big green eyes, the eyes that I had grown to love._

"_Alice, you don't know me yet. I'm from your future, a year after I first met you. But to me you're my sister. Always remember that I love you. And please. Please! Run!"_

_And then I let go. I fell into the black. My heart stopped beating and my body died. But my spirit stayed on. Stayed on to save Alice, and the Doctor._

**A/N: **Hi guys! I'm finally back! It took me way longer than I thought to think of an idea. I went through at least three before I settled on this one. Also, stay tuned for a Doctor Who Facebook chats thing I think I'm going to do. It's taking a bit of thinking about, but I think I'll do it. Who is Never? Well you might Never know...see what I did there? Cool, right? No? Oh. I'll just go hibernate in the Himalayas then...

I have the first chapter written, and I think it's quite funny. It probably isn't, but I think it is. It'll be up soon.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Alice stared in shock as the girl's grip slackened. Gently, she detached the hand, and the arm fell limply to the ground. Alice felt for a pulse, but there wasn't one. She fell back, wondering who the girl was.

She was small, but looked the same age as Alice, with long brown hair and blue eyes that stared unseeingly out of a pale, freckled face. Her accent had been subtly Irish.

Alice reached out and closed the girl's eyes and stood up. Not looking at anyone, she walked stiffly back to the Tardis, closing the door behind her. A few minutes later the Doctor found her, sitting in the depths of the Tardis with her head in her hands.

"Hey," He murmured, looking at her. When Alice didn't answer, he pressed on, "Do you know who she was?"

Alice shook her head, "Do you?"

"No. I have some idea of what she meant, though,"

Alice looked at the Doctor and saw that his face was creased in a frown, "What?"

"It's not good. I...I just hope she was wrong, or that now we're ready. She was from our future, though,"

"I think she came back in time to warn us," Alice said, "But it won't work, will it? The very fact that she came to warn us means that it still happened to her. And she'll still die,"

The Doctor nodded, before taking a deep breath, "You know about the Time War, don't you, Alice?"

"Yes, why?"

"Well, I thought I was the only survivor. But I was wrong. Another Time Lord called the Master was driven mad by the violence, and disguised himself as a human child. He eventually took over earth, and created a paradox, letting the humans from the future into their species' past. We stopped him, but then he came back again. Rassilon tried to escape the destruction of Gallifrey, but he was sent back into the Time Lock and so was the Master. That's the short story, but it's enough, and I don't really want to have to tell it properly.

"The point is, I thought the Master was dead. All his life, he heard the drums in his head, and that girl, she was talking about drums, and the rhythm she tapped, it was the same one!"

Alice stood up and started pacing, "I need to find her, Doctor. I need to know who she is and why she came there to die in front of me,"

Her distracted state gave way to intense concentration, "I need a computer," she muttered, "A really good one, big, up to date programming. And ice pops. Lots and lots of ice pops, not Mr Freezes, the long ones, the good ones. And microwave popcorn, and Oreos. And...and a memory stick with lots of storage space. And my iPod. And Starbucks coffee. Loads of the stuff. Ice cream. And chips! I love chips..."

"Alice," Clara had joined them, "You're rambling. Remember what we said about rambling? And what's with the food?"

Alice glared at Clara, "I need food to concentrate, Clara. All my favourite food...Doctor, do you have any money. Well, a lot of money...is the amount I'm going to need a lot of money? I think it's a lot of money, I'm going to need a good computer...Clara, is it a lot of money?"

Clara sighed patiently. She had learned the hard way not to interrupt Alice when she was rambling, "Yes, Alice, it is a lot of money. You go shopping and get your stuff,"

"Clara, if I wanted to order everything on the Starbucks drinks menu, and any other coffee shop I saw, how would I carry it all?"

"You couldn't," Clara replied flatly.

"I so could!" Alice said indignantly, "I'll prove it to you,"

"Don't spill hot drinks on the middle of the floor," the Doctor warned her, handing her a wallet full of money, "People don't like it. I should know. And I want that wallet back!" he yelled as Alice turned and sprinted to the door, which, with her enhanced speed, only took about a second.

Clara looked at the Doctor, "Is she all right, do you think?"

He sighed, "Well, she's rambling. A lot. I think this is the biggest ramble she's done so far,"

"And we know she rambles when she either has an idea and thinks people care, or is trying to concentrate, or doesn't want to talk about something,"

"I'd say she ticks all of those boxes right now. So no, she's not all right,"

Clara sighed, "I'm going to go shopping. I need to get people presents,"

"Is this your way of not wanting to talk to people, because you're not all right either, but because you're not Alice and I still think you're sane so you can't ramble?" the Doctor asked.

"Well yes," Clara replied, "But I also need to get people presents. And I like shopping. And I also don't ramble because then Alice would be insufferable, and I would never hear the end of it,"

Clara turned and left the Tardis, the door swinging shut behind, leaving the Doctor on his own to realise that he wasn't all right either. And that he really needed to find a way to not talk about things that wasn't rambling or shopping.

***  
Alice sighed in annoyance as her multiple bags banged against her legs again. She had already bought several bags of chips, the Oreos, the microwave popcorn, the ice pops and the ice cream, as well as lots of chocolate and was now looking at the Apple Macbooks on offer in the store. The thin one with the big screen looked good, so she bought that, and then went over to look at the memory sticks.

A boy next to her turned to look at her, and she blinked when she saw him staring.

"Uh, hi?" she said, turning back to the memory sticks.

"Hi," he replied, still staring at her, "I'm Gary. What's your name?"

"Alice. Do you know how I could find out where someone who just died in front of me lives?"

Gary looked at her fearfully, before running from the store. Alice shrugged, and went to get the memory stick.

She dumped her bags in the Tardis, before strolling casually over to the sight were the girl's body had been. She took her iPod from her pocket and slipped through the police cordon. The perception filter was still around her neck, and she moved slowly, so as to avoid drawing attention to herself.

There was a blanket over the girl's body, and Alice reached out to pull it off. The girl's face was still deathly pale, but there seemed to be slightly more colour than last time. When Alice accidently touched the girl's neck, she thought she detected a fluttering pulse. She frowned, but put it down to her imagination, and took the picture of the girl's face, returning the blanket to its previous position and slipping back to the Tardis.

Then she hurried to her favourite place, in the swing chair under the console, where the chair was actually comfortable, and she could do things because it had sockets and good wifi connection.

Immediately, Alice put on her music. The Doctor and Clara were both somewhere unknown and so she didn't bother with headphones. Then she put all her food and drinks into the freezer she had modified so that one part kept things cool, and another kept things hot, before settling down with her chips and coffee.

An hour later, and there was still no result. Hacking into websites was relatively easy for Alice, but finding out who this mysterious girl was harder than she had thought.

"Really, Alice?" Clara asked as she entered the room, "Mumford and Sons?"

"What's wrong with that?" Alice asked, "I was the only one in the Tardis,"

"Yeah...but I don't like the music," Clara pouted.

"Well tough. I was here first. Go somewhere else," Alice replied moodily, glaring at the computer screen.

"Alice, it's loud enough to hear everywhere in the Tardis,"

"Well go home then. I don't like it there, I won't follow you,"

Clara sighed, remembering the argument that had ensued when Alice had refused to stay with the Maitlands.

"_Artie's annoying, Angie's grumpy, they're all ridiculously stupid, the house is too small, it doesn't travel through time and space, doesn't have a swimming pool, or a library, and the wifi sucks,"_

"_Alice, the wifi doesn't always work in the Tardis either. And...Alice, just come with me,"_

"_No,"_

"_Alice..." Clara tried to sound threatening. It didn't work. Alice just sat in her favourite swing chair and didn't budge, "Doctor, can I have a hand here?"_

_He just watched in amusement as Alice put her headphones in and started listening to music. Clara glared at both of them._

"_I hate you. I hate you both," she said as she stalked out of the Tardis. Alice just started laughing._

Brought back to the present, Clara glared at Alice, "Alice, you are the singular most annoying child in the world, you know that?"

"Love you too, Clara. Now shoo. I'm busy,"

Clara sighed and left the Tardis, trying to ignore the increasing feeling that Alice was going to be the death of her.

**A/N:** Hi guys, sorry this took so long to upload, I got really confused with what I had and hadn't put up. But here is Chapter One!


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Alice stared in frustration at the face on the screen. Such an ordinary face. Nothing to make it different in anyway, just the fact that the owner had died in front of her, telling her to run.

She didn't know what to run from. Or what the drums were, but they were obviously bothering the Doctor. He had been tapping the girl's rhythm on and off all day, frowning pensively.

Alice tried to take the girl's age into account. She was around 14, and most teenagers used social networks, and put pictures of themselves on the websites. So she just needed to go onto Facebook or something, and search through the list of 14-year-olds in Ireland to find one who was the same as the girl.

Facebook first, she decided. That was the most popular. Unfortunately you needed an account, and parental permission, but lying didn't affect Alice's guilt. And then she was in, scrolling through the wearying amount of girls in Ireland who had Facebook.

"She doesn't necessarily have to be from Ireland," Alice turned to see the Doctor looking over her shoulder at the computer screen.

"Don't say that she's from somewhere else. There are already way too many people who exist. And too many girls that like fake tan..."

"Alice. Do. Not. Ramble,"

"You ramble,"

"Well then that's plagiarism,"

"It's not, you never copyrighted it, and you probably can't copyright rambling anyway,"

"You are so annoying, you know that?"

"I get that a lot...so who is she?"

The Doctor sighed, "I don't know, Alice. I just don't know. But if you go looking for her because she came to you, then what she said won't have worked, you know. She'll have paradoxically made us look for her, which triggered her coming to us,"

"I don't care, Doctor, I'm finding her. And besides we have to, don't we, because if we don't we won't find her, and then she shouldn't have been able to come to warn me,"

"I suppose so," the Doctor trailed off, looking at the fridges, "How can you eat so much?"

"I need more calories than a normal human, or Time Lord for that matter, and I have faster metabolism," Alice muttered distractedly, "But how is that important? I need to concentrate, stop rambling,"

"You are the biggest hypocrite I know," the Doctor muttered, standing up.

"I don't care. I'm trying to concentrate and you're drowning out the music,"

"It's impossible to drown out the music, I can hear it everywhere and it's horrible,"

"It's not. Wear earplugs,"

Alice turned back to the computer and started scrolling through the pictures. Night came and she still hadn't finished, but wouldn't leave her seat, determined to keep looking. Alice downed coffee after coffee and energy drink after energy drink until her stock was exhausted. It was midnight, and she was shattered, but refused to let herself sleep, because if she allowed herself to drift off, then she'd see their faces.

Ever since returning from Victorian London, Alice had slept badly. Every night she had seen the faces of the people she had killed. Every single one of them staring at her, just staring at her with cold dead eyes, and it was all her fault.

They had all had families, people who had cared about them and wanted them to come home. None of them had lived full lives yet, and it was all Alice's fault. It wasn't always them though. Every night, Madam Kovarian appeared in Alice's dreams, sometimes pointing a gun at her, sometimes laughing as she screamed.

Alice hadn't told them, but she still got urges to kill the Doctor and Clara, still felt stabs of pain in her head as she tried to control herself. And sometimes she heard Kovarian speaking, berating her for not doing what she was created to do.

She put her head in her hands, momentarily closing her eyes. A face swam in front of her, but none she had seen before. A man, laughing maniacally, but only for a second. Alice gasped and sat up. She got up and started pacing, anything to stop her falling asleep.

Her legs started to feel wobbly, but she kept moving. Then they gave way, and Alice fell asleep on the floor. The usual faces appeared; a woman in a green suit. A man with brown eyes. All just looking at her, every single one of their stares accusing, making her feel immeasurable guilt. And then the strange man, still laughing maniacally.

Alice slept on, tossing and turning. Kovarian appeared, and Alice's head began to pound, but this time in rhythm to the girl's beat. _One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. _It was echoed in Alice's hearts as they began to speed up.

She thrashed harder, the pain spiking and growing, threatening to envelop her.

"Kill," she muttered, "Must kill...no. No, stop, please! I don't want to!"

"Alice?" came a voice, floating through the red mist.

"Kill," Alice murmured, "Don't kill. Must kill. Can't! No, I can't! Please! It hurts!"

"Alice!" came the real voice again, "Alice! Wake up!"

Her eyes flew open to reveal Clara, standing over her with a worried expression on her face.

"Clara?" she asked, confused, "Where am I?"

"The Tardis," Clara replied, looking worriedly, "It's nine in the morning. The Doctor says you probably fell asleep at about midnight,"

"No," Alice frowned, "I'm not in the Tardis! I'm dreaming, aren't I? She's making me dream, and I want it to be real!"

Alice put her head in her hands and started crying, "It hurts Clara. It hurts and she's going to make me kill you. But I can't kill you right now, can I? You're only a dream,"

Clara smiled, "Yes, Alice, I'm only a dream. Go back to sleep now,"

"No! No! I don't want to sleep! I won't sleep! The dreams will come if I'm asleep! The bad dreams, not the good ones, not the ones with you in. And the man. The laughing man. I only saw him tonight, but I don't want to sleep!"

"No Alice, the dreams won't come. The dreams have gone. Go back to sleep,"

Alice bit her lip, but closed her eyes and laid back. In a few minutes she was asleep. Alice was tall and Clara was small, but Clara still managed to carry her to the nearest bed, placing her gently on the mattress, before heading to the control room.

The Doctor was leaning against the console, looking worried.

"Did you hear her?" she asked. He nodded.

"She talked about the dreams," she persisted, "What dreams? Kovarian?"

The Doctor sighed, "Probably. Or the people she's killed," he added bitterly.

"She didn't mean to kill them, Doctor," Clara tried to defend Alice, but he cut her off.

"She was in her right mind when it happened. She wasn't hypnotised, she wasn't under anyone's control,"

"She was brainwashed!" Clara cried, "Why are you suddenly so narrow-minded! You've been accepting of Alice all this time, and when she has a nightmare, when she's _scared_, you choose then to start accusing her?"

The Doctor sighed, "I'm sorry. I know it wasn't her fault. I'm just...worried. She mentioned a man, laughing. The last time the Master came back...people had dreams of him laughing. And the drums. That girl's rhythm was the rhythm of the drums. Clara, I think the Master's coming back,"


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

Clara looked at the Doctor, "Are you sure?"

He bit his lip, "Yes. I think I am,"

"You think you're sure doesn't really mean that you are sure," Alice said. The two adults turned to see her leaning against the wall, slightly pale, but all right, "What happened?" she continued, "I was looking for that girl, and then I was in bed asleep,"

"You fell asleep and I carried you there because otherwise you would have hurt your back," Clara said quickly, cutting across the Doctor, who nodded. Alice looked at them suspiciously.

"My back would have been fine...but are you sure you managed to carry me Clara? I'm almost as tall as you,"

"I manoeuvred you," she said stiffly, "And I'm not that small,"

Alice shrugged, going downstairs again. She had lied. She remembered exactly what had happened, the dreams, the pain, the laughing man. It had not turned out as she wanted it to. She had wanted to keep the dreams from Clara and the Doctor as long as possible, but they had been found out. She would have to practice changing the subject.

Alice sat back down and ate some more cookies, staring at the faces on the screen. None of them was the girl. Frustrated, she pressed the scroll down button and kept pressing, lifting it off randomly.

There, staring out of the webpage was a pale, slightly square face dotted with freckles. The girl had brown hair and blue eyes and matched the picture exactly. The name under her picture read Never Walsh.

Alice jumped up, running up to the control room.

"I've found her!" she yelled, "Never Walsh, she lives in Dublin,"

Clara made a face, "What kind of name is Never? Poor girl,"

Alice shrugged, "We're going to find her. Now,"

"Are you sure about this, Alice? You doing this means she will die," the Doctor asked, looking at her.

"I saw her die, Doctor! I saw Never die, so to me she'll die anyway! We. Are. Going. Now,"

She glared at him, looking positively terrifying. He gulped.

"Okay, Alice, okay, we'll go! You're quite scary when you're angry, you know that?"

"Good," Alice frowned, "But we can't just go up to her. What would we do then?"

"She said you became friends," Clara said, "So go to her school. Just live normally for a bit. God knows Just live normally for a bit. God knows you need to,"

Alice looked horrified, "What! Go to _school? _Are you _kidding _me?"

"No," Clara said, "I would have made you go to school anyway, so you might as well do it for Never,"

"Fine," Alice glowered, folding her arms, "But only because of her. And you wouldn't have been able to make me do anything anyway,"

"She's right you know," the Doctor said cheerfully, "You wouldn't have been able to,"

Clara purposefully ignored him and looked at Alice stalking off, "Is she going to sulk now?"

"Probably, yes. She is remarkably immature for who she is and what she's...been through,"

"Neither of you have any tact," Clara muttered, "So. Never Walsh. Who do you think she is?"

The Doctor shrugged, "She seems to be just a normal human, really. There is nothing special about her,"

"She must be someone," Clara muttered, "And if you said you thought the Master was coming back, then maybe she has something to do with that,"

"Maybe," the Doctor replied, shrugging.

"Why do you think Alice is so...so changeable?" Clara asked suddenly.

"How do you mean?"

"It's just...I mean around us her personality doesn't change that much, I guess, but she still has crazy mood swings. She's snarky and sarcastic and upset one minute, and the next she's hyper and happy and rambling crazily. And then when she meets new people, at first she can be sullen and anti-social, and the next she's unbelievably charismatic," Clara bit her lip. The Doctor thought about it.

"I think she might be bipolar, but I'm not sure," he replied eventually, "And it's not like she would ever be without side-effects of her past,"

"No, I guess not," Clara replied.

Underneath the control room, Alice listened to what they said. Was she really that weird? Did she change that much? Was she bipolar? She leaned her head against the wall, breathing fast. She should go, if they didn't want her.

She would have run away later that day, but stayed on for Never. Having someone die in front of you was a good motivation. She walked slowly up to where the Doctor and Clara were, composing herself and making sure that she still looked like she was sulking.

"I've found a school, but I'm not wearing the uniform," she muttered, shoving a sheet of paper at Clara,"

"Fine," Clara replied, "But Alice, try not to get in trouble,"

Alice grinned, "Clara, that's like telling me not to breath,"

"Don't breath then," she shrugged, perusing the sheet of paper Alice had given her. Alice knew it was only meant to be a harmless comment, but there was still a seed of doubt inside her that maybe she wasn't wanted after all.

She turned and walked down the stairs, heading for the library. The Doctor thought for a minute, and then followed her down.

"Alice, are you all right?" he asked.

"Yes," she replied shortly, "Why wouldn't I be?"

"I was just wondering,"

"Well I'll be better as soon as you stop talking to me," she snapped, and walked faster.

The Doctor stopped walking and stared after her. Maybe Clara had a point, and there was something actually wrong, mentally, with Alice, and it wasn't just her personality. He sighed and sat down in Alice's chair.

He thought about what her dreams were really about, and realised that though she tried to hide it, Alice had not been sleeping well since they returned to Clara's time, and that it was increasing. Supposedly it had culminated in Alice deliberately forcing herself to stay awake.

She had also become increasingly manic, short-tempered and almost paranoid in that time. He and Clara had just never realised. The Doctor sighed when he realised that they were Alice's guardians now, though he supposed she just viewed them as roommates, at a stretch friends.

It was his and Clara's duty to look after her, even though she was adamant she could look after herself, and in reality she could, but that didn't mean staying out of trouble. The Doctor ran his hands through his hair, trying to keep a level head.

There were so many strands of information, so many little pieces that didn't join together. Was the Master returning? Was he the laughing man Alice had seen? Nothing made sense, but yet everything made sense. Who was Never? And why was she called that name?

So many questions. But the only thing to do with a question was to find the answer.


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

Captain Jack Harkness looked at the man sitting across from him. Human, but a self-styled soothsayer. It was the 24th century, and Jack supposed it wasn't surprising that the world knew of the Doctor, but this man had been the only one who had responded. Admittedly, the call had been put through some rather dodgy channels, so the seedy man with the fake watch seemed to be Jack's only chance.

He had come across an abandoned vortex manipulator, and had travelled into the future to see if he could warn the Doctor of the drums.

"So, you say you know where the Tardis will be?" Jack asked.

"Yes," the man replied, "But first, my payment,"

Jack shook his head, "Money next. Tell me what you know,"

The man looked around furtively, "The Doctor will go to Earth, to Ireland, in the year 2013. He will be looking for the girl Never Walsh, the first Forsaken Child, the one with the power of time itself. He will have the Time Girl with him, the human hybrid created to kill the Doctor, and the impossible girl, who has saved the Doctor countless times. And they are still hearing the drums, the never-ending drums,"

Jack went cold at the mention of the drums. He had hoped it wasn't true, that the Master wasn't coming back, but he couldn't deny that he had seen him laughing in his dreams, and that the sound had been coming through the rift. _One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four_. The sound of the drums.

"And where in Ireland?"

"Dublin, the 26th of August. A school, in Dublin, where the girl Never goes,"

Jack stood up and threw a wallet to the man, who smiled, twisting his sweaty hands together, and ran out of the bar, plotting the co-ordinates into his vortex manipulator as he moved.

The journey was as nauseating as usual, and Jack took a moment to recover himself, before taking in his surroundings. Dublin, 2013, a normal street in the suburbs, by the looks of things.

There was no sign of the Tardis. Jack cursed himself for being so hasty, but the man had sounded genuine, despite his shifty appearance. He felt his head spin again, and leaned against a tree. Suddenly, a breeze picked up, making the leaves skit over the road, accompanied by a familiar wheezing sound.

Jack stood up, looking around, just as the Tardis materialised a metre from his face. He stepped to the side, and watched as a girl poked her head out.

"It's a bit wet," she commented, before looking at Jack.

"Uh, hi. Can you just pretend you never saw this?" she asked. He looked at her. She was tall, with spiky dark hair and green eyes.

"Who is that?" came a man's voice, and the Doctor stepped out of the Tardis, "Jack?"

"Doctor?" Jack asked, "You've regenerated. Why are you wearing a bowtie?"

"Bowties are cool!" he protested, fiddling with said item of clothing.

"They're really not," the girl smirked, leaning against the Tardis.

"How would you know?" he asked her, "You hate clothes,"

"Correction; I dislike talking about clothes or shopping for clothes, but not the actual clothes. If I hated clothes I wouldn't wear them. And as you can see that is not the case. But I do hate bowties,"

"Good logic," Jack remarked.

"Thank you," she replied, "I'm Alice, by the way,"

"Alice who?" Jack asked.

"Hey!" the Doctor exclaimed, "That's my question. And don't you start, Jack. I should forbid you from saying hello,"

"No one cares," Alice replied, "I don't currently have a surname. I'd like a surname...it would be nice..."

"Think of a surname," the Doctor said dismissively, "Anyway, Jack, what are _you_ doing here?"

"I came to warn you, Doctor. About the drums,"

"Never mentioned the drums," Alice said helpfully.

"Who never mentioned the drums?" Jack asked, frowning.

"Yes Alice, I know that, I don't forget things that quickly," the Doctor told her irritably, "Go and do something,"

"Actually you do forget things. And are you really going to try and tell me to do something?" Alice was grinning incredulously.

"What's wrong with that?" Jack asked, "You are technically a kid,"

"I am not technically a kid! I think I'm probably 14, because of the regeneration when I turned into a 10-year-old..."

"Wait...regeneration? This is really confusing,"

"I'm half Time Lord," Alice told him helpfully. She looked at the Doctor, "It's slightly awkward. I would leave and let him explain it to you but he's already told me to do that so I guess I'll have to stay,"

"You could still leave," the Doctor said, "I'd really like you to leave,"

"I'm not going to leave,"

"I'll make you leave," Jack offered.

"I'll beat you up," Alice replied.

"Really?" Jack raised an eyebrow.

"Yes," the Doctor and Alice said at the same time.

"Who'll beat who up?" Clara stepped out of the Tardis, "Who are you?"

The Doctor sighed, "Clara, Captain Jack Harkness. Jack, Clara Oswald,"

"Hello Clara," Jack said.

"You should stop him saying hello," Alice muttered, "And I can see someone staring. They probably don't have British police boxes in Ireland,"

"Probably not," the Doctor agreed, "After you, Alice,"

"Not a chance. That could be seen by some as me leaving," she replied, smiling pleasantly.

"You're quite scary," Jack remarked.

"I know, I get that a lot," she replied, "After you, guy-with-the-American-accent-whose-name-I-can't-re member-but-courtesy-dictates-me-to-use,"

Jack laughed and entered the Tardis, "You've redecorated," he remarked.

"It's a bit grey," Alice said. Jack looked at her.

"Do you disagree with everything?"

Alice nodded, "It's a principle of mine,"

"Alice, shut up, you can talk again when Jack has explained," the Doctor snapped, "You are unbelievably annoying,"

Alice went quiet. She knew he probably hadn't meant, but there was still that sense that maybe no one wanted her after all. Jack began his story.

"So, people, including me, are saying they've been seeing a man in their dreams, laughing. They don't know who it is, but I know it's the Master. And the drums that the Master heard have been coming out of the rift, the rhythm, I mean. It only points at one thing,"

The Doctor nodded, "He's coming back,"

**A/N: **Hi guys! Sorry I haven't been putting author's notes in lately. Thank you so much to anyone who reviewed! If I get lots of reviews/follows, then I will update more, because I've written up to chapter six. (If you're a guest then you can just say you would follow in a review or something)


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